Does a turnkey PSA contract include the hospital pipeline?

Not always. Global Fund guidance (2025) says suppliers often quote as little as 1 metre of piping, and a new hospital oxygen network is often contracted separately from the plant installation.

Who prepares the site for a PSA plant?

In the Global Fund site readiness process (2025), the buyer does, through a design team and a local contractor working to the supplier's infrastructure requirements; the supplier then approves the site or issues a punch list.

What is included in a turnkey oxygen plant contract?

Q: What does a turnkey PSA oxygen plant contract usually include: civil works, power, pipeline, training?

Under UNDP and Global Fund guidance, a turnkey PSA oxygen plant contract covers supply, installation, testing, commissioning, training, warranty and maintenance of the plant, while civil works, electrical upgrades and the hospital pipeline network are often contracted separately, so the buyer has to confirm with the supplier who does each part of the site work.

What does a turnkey PSA oxygen plant contract usually include: civil works, power, pipeline, training?

What turnkey means in the guidance

The 2020 WHO interim specification (superseded by WHO's technical specifications of 31 December 2024) said PSA plants can be turn-key units complete with all the necessary equipment and supplies, but that the staff who operate and maintain them need specialised training. UNDP (REQ-OXY-001, effective 1 January 2025) says plants can be built on site, skid-mounted or containerised and supplied as turn-key packages, and asks the buyer to define a scope of work covering supply, installation, testing, commissioning, warranties, maintenance, training, quality assurance, safety protocols and minimum qualifications for vendors and personnel. It says the specifications should cover all plant components, including generators, compressors, filters, dryers, manifolds and pipeline connections, plus infrastructure, civil works and electrical requirements, with bills of quantities for materials, equipment, services, piping, civil works, infrastructure upgrades and electrical work.

What the supplier usually does

WHO's Foundations of medical oxygen systems (2023) says the installation tasks may include positioning the system with forklifts or cranes, connecting a reliable power source, interconnecting the supply with the distribution system, designing and installing the pipeline with its outlets, alarms and valves, building or improving the housing, operator training by the supplier's certified trainers, handover of documentation, tests and reports, third-party verification and a long-term service level agreement. Under UNDP's requirements the supplier provides the site preparation details, carries out the installation, tests the complete plant and trains operators, maintenance staff and technical support teams; its project team includes electrical, mechanical or biomedical, and civil or architectural engineers.

What is often outside the supplier's scope

A Global Fund guidance note on site readiness (11 April 2025) describes the usual split. The supplier shares its infrastructure requirements and layout drawings of the container, concrete pad and canopy; a design team prepares the construction documents, and the buyer tenders a local contractor for the pad, the canopy, the electrical feeders from the hospital's main distribution panel and, if required, a backup generator and transfer switch. Improvements such as a larger transformer, better road or truck access or identifying tie-in points to the existing pipeline are not typically in the supplier's scope. The supplier often includes as little as 1 metre of piping in its quote, to connect the plant to an existing network; it may be best placed to install a new hospital oxygen network, but that work is often contracted separately. The supplier then approves the site or issues a punch list, and the note says the buyer must confirm the specific responsibilities with the selected supplier.

The scope can also go beyond installation: a World Bank press release of 5 December 2021 reported PSA plants procured and installed by UNOPS, which was also to operate and maintain them for three years.

Ultra Controlo

ULTRAOX plants leave the factory pre-electrified, parameterised and tested, ready to start on site, and can be fully interconnected if requested; on large plants, installation, start-up and staff training are supervised by Ultra Controlo factory technicians (ULTRAOX SC datasheet, p. 3). The ULTRAOX datasheet (2022, p. 9) lists what the customer provides: a drainage system, fixing for all equipment, the power supply, a clean and level area reachable by a crane, the licences to install and operate the plant, and any other works not specified in the datasheet. For sites with no plant room or civil space, the datasheet (p. 19) points to the ULTRAOX CO, built inside a sea container.